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Are the only two BFI Ozus with the bonus feature in HD Equinox Flower and Late Spring? I can't find one page with all the specs anywhere.

Yes

One possible reason for the lack of BFI action on the Ozu front, the person most recently responsible for handling this series (Sonia Mullett) appears to have left around the the end of 2013 (or early 2014) -- and now works at ITN. My only address for her was her one at BFI which is now, of course, dead).

I guess the BFI project can now be presumed dead, which is sad, because this time we really came quite close to having a complete, homogeneous "Ozu with subtitles" set...
I am unsure whether Criterion will go beyond their 3rd Eclipse set.
And unsure too whether there will be any more BluRay transfers beyond the already available BFI (+ Masters of Cinema), Criterion, and Shochiku ones (and Carlotta for the French market + various publishers for Spain, Italy, etc., but all using one of the same available sources).
So I've done what I had long intended to do : a simplified Excel file listing all (IMHO) relevant DVD and BR editions of Ozu films.
I kept it, as I said, simple, with just 7 columns :
- (English) "title" (only for the 37 extant, or partly extant films, not the lost ones) - with mention of "fragments" and "short film" where applicable -,
- (French) "titre" - with same mention -,
- "Shochiku + Toho + Daiei", with specific mention of Toho and Daiei editions listed for the 3 non-Shochiku films, and "+ BR" added in red when there is a separate Blu Ray edition available (keeping in mind that the BRs have English subtitles, while none of the Japanese DVDs do, and that the original DVDs were from a different master, not "reductions" of the BRs : so there are actually two DVD editions of the same movies, one beofre there was a HD transfer, and one after),
- "Carlotta + Arte + MK2" for the French DVDs (and 2 BRs), with Arte or MK2 specified for non-Carlotta releases (only French s/t),
- "BFI + Masters of Cinema" for the British DVDs (and BRs), with MoC specified for Floating Weeds,
- "Criterion" for the US DVDs (and BRs), keeping in mind that (as is the case for the Shochiku sets), here there are (or were) available DVDs that were done from different masters than the present "Blu Ray reduced to DVD" editions ; CAUTION :1/ Criterion (somehow paranoically) insists on using "region 1" DVD and "region A" Blu Ray format, so beware what your player can or can't do, and 2/ as opposed to BFI, Criterion has given up the "dual format" editions, so that Tokyo Story is (for now) still available in dual format, but the new transfer of Late Spring on DVD must be bought separately from the Blu Ray,
- and finally "Panorama + Bo Ying + Filmax" : Panorama because these Hong Kong releases remain to this day, with all their shortcomings, the 3rd most complete series of Ozu films behind Shochiku (but remember, no subtitles...) and BFI (but some titles on Panorama are not on BFI), Bo Ying simply because it is one of the few editions of The Munekata Sisters, keeping in mind that the "true" Bo Ying disc only has Chinese subtitles, but there are quite a few "home made" DVDs (made from this Chinese edition rather than the Japanese one) with English subtitles added, and Filmax because it is, to the best of my knowledge, the only "legal" edition of The Munekata Sisters so far with subtitles in a Western language (in this case, Spanish). I also know someone selling DVDs made from a former VHS with French subtitles, but no English ones, if someone's interested...
Note that where there are 2 "x", it means that there was a first DVD (usually still available), and that there is now a second, different DVD that came out along with the Blu Ray edition (even though not necessarily in the same package : see recent Criterion policy in that regard).
I deliberately left out the Tartan sets due to their poor quality, not compensated with a large offer as in the case of Panorama.
What it shows is that, all questions of quality of transfer, subtitles, etc., apart, and also not considering the availability of some titles that tend to become scarce or be quite hard to find already (like Criterion's Good Morning), the most "fragile" Ozu films for now are the fragment of Fighting Friends Japanese Style (only available on Shochiku and Carlotta), the documentary Kagami jishi (same here), and I Flunked, But... and The Lady and the Beard (only available on Shochiku and BFI).
This does not aim at being an exhaustive, scientific list, but rather a tool, particularly for people wanting to have an easy reference allowing them to become acquainted with Ozu or to deepen their knowledge of his work.
So here's the link :
http://www.filedropper.com/ozudvdbr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It will remain active for 30 days, and 30 more days every time someone downloads it. If this forum hardly sends anyone there and the link expires (not too unlikely since nobody seems to come here any more...), let me know by PM, I will renew it (and possibly update the file if necessary).

Thanks for this useful tabulation. At first glance though I think you haven't noted the BR of Le fils unique

The ongoing 4k restorations must have been a mixed blessing. It had to have been irksome to launch a series of BD reissues, only to find out that each title you had in stores or in the pipeline was being prepped elsewhere for a new, superior restoration that would be out in just a few years.

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:Thanks for this useful tabulation. At first glance though I think you haven't noted the BR of Le fils unique

You are right, I'm so sorry, I got mixed up between my fathers and sons !... It is indeed The Only Son that got Blu Rayed by Carlotta, not There Was a Father. I corrected the mistake and changed the original post so that it now shows the corrected file.

hearthesilence wrote:The ongoing 4k restorations must have been a mixed blessing. It had to have been irksome to launch a series of BD reissues, only to find out that each title you had in stores or in the pipeline was being prepped elsewhere for a new, superior restoration that would be out in just a few years.

True, there could/should have been a degree of concertation rather than competition between the three major publishers, in order to either co-edit the 4k restorations or to share the tasks between them. Then again, I can't think of any firm willing to let go a Blu Ray reissue of Tokyo Story and just do Equinox Flower...

JacquesQ wrote: This does not aim at being an exhaustive, scientific list, but rather a tool, particularly for people wanting to have an easy reference allowing them to become acquainted with Ozu or to deepen their knowledge of his work.
So here's the link :
http://www.filedropper.com/ozudvdbr_1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It will remain active for 30 days, and 30 more days every time someone downloads it. If this forum hardly sends anyone there and the link expires (not too unlikely since nobody seems to come here any more...), let me know by PM, I will renew it (and possibly update the file if necessary).

Excellent, downloaded this list. I think the only thing it is missing is a column for Hulu/FilmStruck as almost all the films are available there with English subtitles but the silent films without accompany disc releases are unfortunately score-less (I just watched I graduated But and A Straightforward Boy last week).

Excellent, downloaded this list. I think the only thing it is missing is a column for Hulu/FilmStruck as almost all the films are available there with English subtitles but the silent films without accompany disc releases are unfortunately score-less (I just watched I graduated But and A Straightforward Boy last week).

Thanks for the reminder, but I'm probably too much "of the old school" to be well acquainted with those online film servers.
Another problem is they're not available everywhere - actually those you name are only in the US for now, I think.
And third, if I am correct, you can watch the movies, not download them, which means you lose many features you can use on a disc (or even a VHS), like stopping, going back, comparing frames, etc. - or at least I guess they're not easy to manipulate on such sites.
So I stick with my "material support" file for now !

JacquesQ wrote: http://www.filedropper.com/ozudvdbr_1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
It will remain active for 30 days, and 30 more days every time someone downloads it. If this forum hardly sends anyone there and the link expires (not too unlikely since nobody seems to come here any more...), let me know by PM, I will renew it (and possibly update the file if necessary).

Thank you! I will use it to make sure that we have everything by Ozu with English subtitles on DVD or Blu-ray in our library's media collection.

Fantastic job! Thanks a lot. You forgot the BFI Blu Ray of Tokyo Story.

patreig wrote:Fantastic job! Thanks a lot. You forgot the BFI Blu Ray of Tokyo Story.

Thanks a lot for noticing this blunder (although, as regards quality, it is probably the weakest of all Blu Rays of Tokyo Story, but this file is meant to list, not to rate). I made the correction and uploaded the corrected file. I hope we are heading for 100% correctness now (but hoping that it will have to be corrected again in a not too remote future due to new releases !).

I am about to buy The Only son/there was a father dvd set from Criterion for its lovely artwork, a lengtly booklet and its own supplement. Can anyone confirm that these movies that come as a supplement on those bfi blu ray doesn't have a lot improvement on PQ/AQ over the criterion dvd set? If their PQ/AQ are about the same, I could be confident in buying the cirterion set. Cheers.

Hopefully somebody will come by who can give you a proper answer, but in lieu of that: I have the BFI Blu-ray of Only Son, and have rented the Criterion DVD of the same in the past, and as best as I can recall, the Blu-ray is not a significant improvement on the DVD. But you'd obviously prefer an opinion from someone who has either compared them side-by-side or watched them reasonably close together.

I've only seen the Criterion DVD of There Was a Father. I seem to remember the film critic interviews on both Criterion DVDs being quite good -- essentially video essays.

The BFI blu-rays use available Criterion HD Masters as the basis for their restorations, I believe. The Only Son may have been a DVD, but it was from an HD-master.

Thanks a lot, I will definitely getting the criterion set now. :)

Well I mean, the BFI's aren't picture-boxed, they are 1080p, there is definitely an increase in resolution, and you get Equinox Flower and Late Spring in high-def. You can get both right now for about $40 on Amazon. I would go with the BFIs!

Thanks for your suggestion Drucker, I already have the new 4k restoration japanese blu ray of Equinox Flower and Late Spring, that's why I am only interested in The Only Son/There was a Father on BFI discs. In your opinion, do you think it's still worth it to own the bare bone 1080p version on BFI's or should I own picture-boxed with nice supplement found on Criterion's?

I just found this on Amazon.jp, the new 4k restoration of Early Summer!!! I've got new Shochiku blu ray of Tokyo Story and Late Spring already. So now I can complete Noriko trilogy, all in 4k restoration blu ray. This is a day one for me :)

I can't find any indication that there are Eng. subs. Anybody know?

Jack Phillips wrote:I can't find any indication that there are Eng. subs. Anybody know?

Both CDJapan and YesAsia now list this for pre-order and indicate that there will be English subtitles. No surprise here since all of the other Shochiku Blu-ray releases of the restored Ozu films have them.

Twentyfoureyes wrote:I just found this on Amazon.jp, the new 4k restoration of Early Summer!!! I've got new Shochiku blu ray of Tokyo Story and Late Spring already. So now I can complete Noriko trilogy, all in 4k restoration blu ray. This is a day one for me

Added both the new DVD and BR to my Ozu spreadsheet and uploaded it again in case anyone's interested (see some 20 posts above).

The Cornwall Film Festival presented I Was Born, But..., with Ed Hughes' score performed live by a local music ensemble, at the weekend, which was very enjoyable both in terms of the film and the music performance. Ed Hughes was present, which I think made the musicians more nervous about the quality of the performance than they might have been otherwise. Interestingly, Ed Hughes said that his inspiration for the shape of and repetitions in the score came from David Bordwell's analysis of the film in his book on Ozu.

Unfortunately, I suppose at this point it's unlikely that the BFI is going to release the remaining films.

AidanKing wrote:Unfortunately, I suppose at this point it's unlikely that the BFI is going to release the remaining films.

Because I wrote one of the essays for the now-long-ago latest BFI Ozu set, I feel vaguely responsible for (somehow) killing the series off.